Hello everyone, thank you for letting me join this wonderful forum!

I'm planning on buying an espresso machine. Both me and my boyfriend love espresso, and I'm seconds away from placing an order.

BUT!

My boyfriends cholesterol levels are a little too high. And it would be a little irresponsible of me to buy him an espresso machine considering that he won't be able to stick to one cup a day (that would be a cruel thing to expect). I am sure you espresso lovers are aware of the coffee oils (known as diterpenes), such as cafestol and kahweol.

My question is:

Would it be a terrible idea to buy an espresso machine, and brew the coffee with a filter in the cup? That way we would get rid of a lot of the bad fat/oils. I understand that this will remove the delicious crema, and it breaks my heart. But would we still be able to enjoy the taste of espresso?

I brew my espresso with a paper filter on the bottom of the basket for an unrelated reason and it works and tastes great. You still get crema but it doesn't seem to last as long, which is fine

Ah, ok. Good to know!

Another newbie question: What budget friendly automatic coffee machine would you recommend? (If you had to) I'm considering Delonghi Magnifica, but there are so many of them.

Do you think putting a filter in the cup would have the same effect? Would be sad to lose out on all the crema.

Any help would be appreciated.

I'd like to see the details of the study that determined coffee oils in espresso increase LDL. Must be a tiny % of a shot are oils. I would not be surprised if those findings are suspect at best.

Yeah, I was sceptical as well. I live in Norway, and a few years back the newspapers were filled with stories on how coffee that wasn't filtered would increase cholesterol. Apparently the scandinavian way of making coffee (kokekaffe/boiled coffee) and french press were the worst kinds. If I remember correctly capsule coffe and espresso was considered slightly better. BUT this isn't anything to worry about unless your cholesterol is already high. Everything in moderation

Sources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/high- ... offee-link

https://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-manag ... connection

There are more and more studies that show NO connection between high cholesterol (LDL) and heart/vein problems.

It's a huge mistake by healthcare to preach high cholesterol as ultimate bad and put healthy people on diets, pills, etc. Luckily things are tuning around slowly, but there was so much damage already done.

Buy espresso machine. Let him play with it, enjoy it and drink his coffee. It's happiness/not being stressed while brewing and enjoying his coffee that will be a lot healthier for him then dieting and worrying about a stupid LDL number.

Dejan is correct. Old bad ideas not based on real science die slowly. Looking briefly at the webmd link I see that is also full of misinformation. Like saturated fat is bad, which turns out to be entirely false. (On the other hand, that sugary cinnamon roll is really bad for you...grin !)